Advance with caution on Pa. Turnpike tolling

Monday, November 26, 2012

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says it’s determined to upgrade to 21st-century technology. Hear! Hear! But with a state grand jury investigation of alleged Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission corruption ongoing since 2009, the modernization should be viewed warily.

The turnpike’s acting chief executive officer Craig Shuey recently told a joint House and Senate Transportation Committee hearing that the five-year project is the most ambitious of its kind in the nation.

He also says it’ll be the most significant change in how the turnpike operates since it opened in 1940.

A contractor hired in July will implement all-electronic tolling in a five-year project, officials say. Existing toll plazas will be replaced by “gantries” spanning turnpike lanes to automatically deduct tolls from E-ZPass users’ accounts and photograph other motorists’ license plates to send them bills.

The upfront cost is estimated to be $250 million. But estimated annual savings from eliminating 755 unionized toll collectors, about 100 nonunion toll-plaza workers and the plazas’ energy and maintenance costs will be at least $97 million.

But all-electronic tolling reminds us of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s withholding tax: You won’t readily appreciate what you’re paying. And even with voluminous toll-rate signage, costs could fly under the public’s radar.

Turnpike operations seldom have been the paragon of openness and “best management practices”; automatic tolls could give the agency cover for more public fleecing.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission touts the project as bringing greater safety and convenience no more slowing or stopping to pay tolls plus reduced emissions from vehicles idling in line. That’s fine. But past being prologue, if there’s a way to corrupt the system, turnpike officials will find one.